1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to improvements on cameras capable of imprinting data peculiar to a film in an unexposed area of the film.
2. Description of Related Art
Heretofore, as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. Hei 6-67285, there have been known cameras capable of imprinting data peculiar to a film, such as a film serial number, (hereinafter also referred to as a film ID) on a leader portion (hereinafter referred to as a zeroth frame) of the film, which is closer to its front end portion than the first frame thereof. In the cameras of such a kind, the film ID is a numeric value to be inputted by a photographer through an operation member, and is allowed to be changed by the photographer performing a changing operation.
The film ID is peculiar information to be set by the photographer and is also very important information for use in filing developed photographic negatives, photograph prints, or the like. However, if the photographer performs, by mistake, an operation of changing the film ID when a film is in the state of being loaded in a camera, and then loads in the camera another new film in place of the loaded film without noticing the change of the film ID, the changed film ID is imprinted in the zeroth frame of the new film. Such an unintended change of the film ID by the photographer may cause the film ID to become information meaningless for the photographer, because the film ID not intended by the photographer is imprinted on the film.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a camera, which comprises a data setting device for setting data peculiar to a film to be imprinted in a predetermined area of the film, a film presence/absence detecting device which detects whether a film is loaded in the camera, and a data change control circuit which, when the film presence/absence detecting device has detected that a film is loaded in the camera, inhibits the data setting device from changing the data peculiar to a film, so that an unintended change of the data peculiar to a film by the photographer is prevented, and therefore, the camera is prevented from writing the unintended peculiar data on a film as loaded next.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a camera, which comprises a data setting device for setting data peculiar to a film to be imprinted in a predetermined area of the film, a film presence/absence detecting device which detects whether a film is loaded in the camera, wherein the data setting device functions for setting data other than the data peculiar to a film when the film presence/absence detecting device has detected that a film is loaded in the camera, so that an unintended change of the data peculiar to a film by the photographer can be prevented, and, further, the number of operation members of the camera can be decreased, thereby reducing the size of the camera.